“A Song of Summer”

Before “A Song of Summer,” it would have been hard to imagine the noise musician Jefre Cantu- Ledesma ripping a face-melting guitar solo. Yet three minutes into the first single from his upcoming record, On the Echoing Green, he lets loose a rapturous guitar riff that’d make Kevin Shields proud. It’s the kind of bellowing shoegaze solo that you air-guitar along to, getting lost in the articulation of each pluck. But Cantu-Ledesma is still an experimental musician, so waves of feedback course off each note and there’s an undercurrent of drone, making for a dense, cloudy terrain of noise. However, the distortion and the static are never acrid; Cantu-Ledesma knows how to make even chaotic moments feel sweet and pillowy.

The other element of surprise on the track is the presence of an affable singer. On Cantu- Ledesma’s lasttwo releases, vocals were more of a spectral presence, hiding in the background or absent entirely. Here, he’s recruited Sobrenadar (aka Paula Garcia) as a vocalist, and her velvety delivery adds an element of leisure to the song. Even though it’s impossible to make out a single word she’s saying, her delivery is magnetic. “A Song of Summer” is an unexpectedly devil-may-care turn for Cantu-Ledesma; who knew he’d make such a convincing rock star?